in today's video we are going to be breaking down cholesterol and separating the myths
from the facts we're going to be talking about good and bad cholesterol and what
that really means we're going to discuss dietary cholesterol and whether you should be limiting it
and we're also going to talk about how you can use your cholesterol panel
to find out if you are insulin resistant so if any of that sounds helpful to you keep watching
hey guys welcome back to the channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a certified health
and nutrition coach i post videos here on youtube twice a week on everything from insulin resistance
and blood sugar management to weight loss and sleep so if you want to take control of your
metabolic health make sure to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on tik tok and
instagram where i share new posts every single day okay so cholesterol this has to be one of
the topics i am asked about most frequently people are concerned that their cholesterol is too high
they're concerned about eating dietary cholesterol and what i will say right off the bat is that
there are so many misconceptions when it comes to cholesterol cholesterol isn't as simple as
good and bad in fact it's actually a lot more complex than that but i'm gonna try to simplify
it today answer all of the questions that i'm frequently asked about cholesterol and give
you the information that you need and you can use this information to understand your results better
and know what red flags to look out for so what is cholesterol cholesterol is a type of fat
and an essential structural component for the cell membranes of both humans and animals
it is found in every single cell in the human body and has several functions some of the roles
it plays include helping your body to absorb fat soluble vitamins so these are vitamins a d e and
k it helps to create hormones especially the sex hormones it helps your body to synthesize
vitamin d and it maintains your cells structure now most of the cholesterol that's found in your
bloodstream which is what's tested for when you get a cholesterol test this is actually created by
the body we can get a small amount of cholesterol from eating animal foods but increasing or
decreasing dietary cholesterol has been shown to only impact blood cholesterol levels marginally
in fact it has such a little impact that the us dietary guidelines actually dropped it as a
nutrient of concern in 2015. that's right the u.s dietary guidelines no longer have an upper limit
for how much cholesterol you should consume so worrying about eating too much dietary
cholesterol is pointless it's not going to impact your blood cholesterol and that is the first myth
the dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol any meaningful amount now when we're talking about
cholesterol we're not actually talking about cholesterol itself but rather what carries it
and these are known as lipoproteins there are four types of lipoproteins but the main two tested for
are ldl and hdl and though they are often referred to as good and bad they are both important
and that is the next myth that ldl cholesterol is bad ldl is responsible for carrying cholesterol
particles around the body and hdl goes around the bloodstream and collects excess cholesterol
bringing it to the liver where it can be used or excreted so neither is good or bad they both play
a role but here's where things start to get a bit tricky having high ldl has been associated with
a greater risk of heart disease and that is why there are concerns over having high cholesterol
a lot of people who eat a low carb ketogenic diet can sometimes see a rise in their ldl
when they make this diet change we're going to touch more on that in just a second but looking at
ldl alone is actually not a good indicator of our heart disease risk and it's not a good indicator
of our overall health the studies that have found an association between high ldl levels
and an increased risk of heart disease have shown just that an association the reality is is that
the vast majority of people who have heart attacks actually have what is considered to be normal ldl
levels and simply lowering ldl does not decrease your risk in fact in one study where they lower
the ldl of participants into a range considered optimal after three years the total mortality was
twice as high in the group that lowered their ldl as compared to the group with higher ldl
it is well known that for older populations so for people over the age of 60 increased ldl is not
associated with heart disease and it's actually inversely associated with all-cause mortality
and this is the next myth that lowering your ldl cholesterol decreases your heart disease
risk there is a much stronger association with insulin resistance and heart disease although
insulin resistance goes so largely undiagnosed that most people don't realize the connection so
what is a better indicator of heart disease risk if looking at ldl alone isn't enough as previously
mentioned being insulin resistant significantly increases your heart disease risk along with your
risk of developing type 2 diabetes dementia pcos and more but still looking at your blood
cholesterol panel there are actually two other numbers besides ldl that can give you a better
indicator of your overall health these numbers are your hdl cholesterol and your triglycerides
we already discussed what hdl is and triglycerides are the amount of fat that's in your blood
so triglycerides you want to be lower ideally less than 1.7 millimoles per liter
or 150 milligrams per deciliter and hdl you want to be higher ideally over one millimole per liter
or 50 milligrams per deciliter and these are the reference ranges that practitioners recommend
however as soon as they see ldl is high they don't even look at anything else
and that's concerning because the ratio between triglycerides and hdl has actually
been shown to be a much better indicator of heart disease risk with one meta-analysis concluding
although some lipid variables were associated with the extent of coronary disease
the ratio of triglycerides to hdl cholesterol showed the strongest association with extent
you can find your ratio by dividing your triglycerides by your hdl make sure to
calculate it in milligrams per deciliter though and not millimoles per liter you're gonna get
the wrong number if you do the latter and this is because millimoles are actually different values
depending on what you're measuring i've mentioned triglyceride to hdl ratio before in my videos
and i've mentioned that it needs to be calculated in milligrams per deciliter and i've been called
out in the comments saying it should matter it does matter trust me i understand basic math
but to convert triglycerides from millimoles to milligrams you need to multiply it by 89 and to
convert hdl you need to multiply it by 39 so then you can calculate your ratio just want to put
that out there because i know i'm gonna get that comment a ratio under 1.9 is considered optimal
a ratio of two to three indicates moderate heart disease risk and a ratio over three is
a strong indicator of heart disease risk and these values are also indicators of insulin resistance
that is how much the two are connected but anyways guys this was just a quick video summarizing
cholesterol and busting some myths i hope that you found it helpful if you do calculate your ratio
let me know what you got in the comment section down below remember to give this video a thumbs
up just before you leave and if you would like early access to all of my videos consider becoming
a channel member if you did enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video on the best foods you
can eat for insulin resistance you can check it out here if you want to catch up on my most recent
upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my new insulin resistance master class
and meal plan that's coming soon you can find it here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye